Chesterfield Business Using Augmented Reality to Help the Homeless

A Chesterfield-based technology company are aiming to raise £1,000 for homeless charity Centrepoint, through their augmented reality app ‘Mini Santa’, which interacts with a 3D pop-up Christmas card.

According to Centrepoint (https://centrepoint.org.uk/youth-homelessness/), 103,000 young people asked for help with homelessness in 2018, and as digital media company Oasis Studio operate in both the education sector and property industry, they wanted to help change this.

Oasis created a festive, augmented reality animation to raise money and awareness for Centrepoint, a charity who give young homeless people a future. The animation plays from a smartphone or tablet, triggered from 3D pop-up card, which has been delivered to their clients and connections. However, a digital version is available for the general public to experience their Mini Santa animation.

Tom Swallow, Development Manager of The Bolsterstone Group and receiver of one of the Oasis Christmas cards, said:

“The card produced by Oasis Studio demonstrates the innovative approach they take to all projects to produce a high quality product. The clever use of technology highlights how AR is becoming simpler to use and an increasingly important marketing tool with so many applications. The support for Centrepoint adds a great touch and is a very worthy charity!”

Augmented reality is a technology that places a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, usually accessed through a smartphone or tablet.

Oasis Studio always aim to do something spectacular for Christmas, and this year set the ambitious target of creating something that is digital, whilst also containing a tangible element, as well as telling a story

Founder of Oasis Studio, Paul Deakin, explained:

“We are a forward-thinking studio with large ambitions, and this translates into everything we do. We set our target high because of this, and I encourage everyone to try our app for themselves, and help us to raise our £1,000 target for a very worthy cause.”

The Christmas card was completely made in-house by Oasis, from the printing of the 3D pop-up card, to the laser cutting, to the augmented reality, to the animation.